Adaptive Pre-load to raise Efficiency of electrical pre-loaded Rack-and-Pinion Drives

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Permanent increasing demands on production accuracy and productivity impose high dynamic feed drives with excellent command tracking and disturbance rejection properties. A drive system predominantly used in large machines is the rack-and-pinion drive (RPD). A central problem of RPD is backlash in the drive train. The electrical preloading of the system by a second identical drive is an established solution. The preload is applied by a differential torque between the drives, which is generally kept constant. However, this change other dynamically relevant properties such as stiffness and damping.In order to adjust dynamically relevant system properties according to demand, the project intends to design the preload adaptively. A high preload allows the setting of a high Kv, which results in an excellent tracking performance. But the high preload cannot be used permanently due to waste heat, which is the reason for researching an adequate control method to adapt the preload as required. The objective is to develop a method which uses the total torque of the system, if necessary. On the other hand, the preload is reduced during non-critical operating phases. Overall, the research project results in an electrically preloaded RPD with optimal performance.